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A civilian arab man is captured in the desert by United States forces after attacking three soldiers in Afghanistan, and is soon tortured and brutalized in a secret detention center. He finds himself transported to Poland, along with other prisoners. He manages to escape into the vast frozen woodland, a world away from the home he knew. In order to survive he kills some of those who stray into his path and forages for food both from nature and from those he encounters. A woman gives him shelter, treats his wounds and feeds him before sending him back out into the wilderness. He departs on a white horse and, as the first shoots of spring are seen through the snow, appears to die.

Skolimowski had been searching to replicate the conditions of his previous film, Four Nights with Anna, most of which was filmed near his home in the Polish Masurian forests. He had heard of rumored (and later revealed[1]) CIA use of the nearby Szymany Airfield for flights carrying prisoners from the Mid-East. Subsequently, Skolimowski skidded off the road during winter while driving a 4-wheel drive vehicle. Noticing he was two kilometers from Szymany, it occurred to him that the same could easily happen to a prisoner transport and, from this, he found the initial inspiration for the Essential Killing scenario.[2] He shared a draft script with Jeremy Thomas who encouraged him to think beyond the modest local production Skolimowski had initially envisioned and the project grew, with Thomas as an executive producer, into a multi-national coproduction made under challenging circumstances:

"In general, the working conditions were very difficult. Most of the movie was filmed at -35 ° in the high mountains, where you can not get even with a Snowcat. We had to practically climb to the set: the entire crew has suffered much about the situation, it was certainly the most difficult film I ever did. Vincent Gallo has had the most thankless task of all, having to run barefoot in the snow at those temperatures."[3]

Aware of the potential political overtones of the film, Skolimowski initially nearly dismissed the project as being "too political",[4] he strove to make it non-political:

"The political aspects of the situation didn’t interest me: to me politics is a dirty game and I don’t want to voice my opinions. What is important is that the man who runs away is returning to the state of a wild animal, who has to kill in order to survive.[5] "

The film is deliberately non-specific as to locations:

"I don't even say whether the film starts in Afghanistan, Iraq or maybe some other place, whether it's an American military base, where the prisoners are kept, whether it's situated in any of those countries. I don't say whether the plane which is landing somewhere in Europe is really landing in Szymany, in Poland."[2]

As was also true with his protagonist's identity:

"In the facial features of Vincent Gallo there is something that is difficult to identify. Nobody knows where he is. I was hoping that even if Vincent will not be received as a native Arab or Muslim, and so it will always be different, neither here nor there. Besides, it could be someone like John Walker Lindh, the famous Californian who was Taleb and joined Osama bin Laden affiliates."[6]

This enigmatic quality is furthered in that the protagonist utters not a single word in the course of the movie. An extension of this is that, while some characters are named in the credits, no names are used in the film itself.

Director Skolimowski with Essential Killing's prizes at the 67th Venice International Film Festival

Essential Killing received its world premiere In Competition on September 6, 2010 at the 67th Venice International Film Festival. At the closing ceremony on 11 September 2010, the film won the Special Jury Prize, and Best Actor (the Volpi Cup), for Vincent Gallo's wordless performance as a Muslim insurgent,[7][8] in addition to the CinemAvvenire Award for Best Film In Competition (voted by a non-statutory youth jury).[9] Gallo was not present to receive his award, which was accepted on his behalf by Skolimowski, who urged the actor to come out of hiding in the audience and take the stage. It was the first time in the Festival's history that two major awards had been bestowed on a single film. At a press conference, Jury President Quentin Tarantino revealed that he had asked Festival head Marco Mueller to break the rules in order to honor the film, a change that will carry on into future editions of the Festival.[9]